“Nick,” Kat said, walking down the stairs in the townhall. “What the hell?”

  “What?” I asked, turning to face her.

  She pointed at the crates behind me. A couple of porters had come in, unloading the crates from their inventories. Even though everyone had their own personal inventories, the size was fairly Level dependent, meaning some people had smaller ones that couldn’t take a lot of weight and filled up quick, there was still a need for Porters, people to deliver items across the cities and territories. Not everyone wanted to walk either. Sometimes they wanted things brought to them.

  It could be quite lucrative, as the tip I’d just given the two guys showed. I had the coins, why not tip big?

  “What is all that?” Kat asked, walking over to the crates. She looked back at me. “Beer?”

  “Yep. It’s quite popular on the Nexus. Figured until we can get a pub up and running, might as well stock some in the store. Build up a customer base.”

  “Your idea of Micheals?”

  “Fields. But it’s a good one.”

  “And you ran out of the stock you had?”

  “Yep. Wasn’t just me drinking it though.”

  Kat sighed.

  “Of course not,” she said, as I started plopping the crates of beer into my inventory. “Did you buy up all of Sean’s stock?”

  “Yeah. There’s a couple of crates from the other breweries coming to. I’m giving Sean the pub, but no reason not to sell the other brews too.”

  “Good thinking,” she replied.

  “Sean’s coming by later to talk about what he’d need in the Nexus Compound for brewing operations.”

  “Is there space in the Compound?”

  “For now. Not like it’s going to be used by other crafters.”

  She nodded, conceding the point.

  “They’re going to be here soon.”

  I nodded, putting the last crate away.

  ***

  Two men walked into the conference room. One was tall and skinny, wearing leather armor in various shades of black and gray. No cloak, but did have what looked like a balaclava around his neck, pulled down so we could see his face. Clean shaven, bald, dull gray eyes. The other man was older, not as tall, but decent build, wearing clothes that matched the local style in Solace. Gray hair and beard. Nothing stood out about the man.

  Even looking at him, focusing on him, was hard.

  Which was perfect for his job and a function of his Path.

  “Benjamin, Trevor,” Kat said as they walked in.

  I was standing, reaching out to shake both men’s hands.

  “Ben, Trevor,” I said.

  “Nick,” Ben, the older man, said.

  Trevor just nodded. He was a man of few words. They both took seats across the table from us.

  “What did you need us for?” Ben asked.

  “So things are developing pretty quickly in the Multiversal Nexus,” I said, starting to explain everything with the Anura and Bounding Dragons Sect.

  The two listened without commentary. Neither were very talkative to begin with, especially Trevor. Tall, silent and deadly. That was Trevor Daniels in a nutshell. The Solace Fellowship didn’t have assassins, the Bounding Dragons did, but if we did that would be Trevor’s job. As it was, his job was a spy.

  And sometimes he had to kill.

  Benjamin Sanders was the Fellowship’s spymaster and had been for a long time. He kept track of all the agents we had scattered across the world. Trevor was his top spy. Ben was very good at his job. He had a sharp mind and could piece together plans from scraps of data.

  I finished talking, letting the two digest what I’d said.

  “We’ll need to adjust our plans a bit,” Ben said. “I know originally it was the plan to have Trevor go to the Nexus as soon as he can and only Trevor in that first wave.” He pulled a notebook and pencil out of his inventory and flipping it to a clean page. “I assume you’ll be speaking to Donovan about the guards?”

  “Yeah.”

  “How many?”

  I shrugged.

  “At least two each and I assume Fields will supply his own guards.”

  Ben made some notes. He flipped back a couple of pages, running a finger down the page.

  “Last count, the Bounding Dragon Sect had twenty Level 100s and another ten that would hit that in the next month. Fred’s Alliance had five Level 100s and another five in the next month.”

  He looked up at me. I looked at Kat.

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  “Five in a couple of weeks,” she answered.

  “Tracy, Harry, Nathan, Gary and Charles,” Ben said, moving back to the new page and writing down some numbers.

  I looked at Kat.

  “Charles Cross,” Kat answered. “Their Healer and the reason why it’ll take them a little longer. He’s a couple Levels below the rest.”

  I nodded. Tracy had mentioned they were interviewing a couple of Healers but hadn’t mentioned the names.

  “And we don’t have anyone else that will be near Level 100,” he flipped back a couple more pages. “For a long time. Large group around Level 85.” He looked at Trevor. “You just got back from the Grey Wolf territory. We haven’t gotten any official numbers from them yet but what do you think?”

  Trevor raised a hand, laying it out flat, and moved it back and forth.

  “The leader is Level 90, and he’s got a couple Elites around that, but most are still in the 50s and 60s. A couple in the 70s, one or two in the 80s. They don’t have many Adventurers.”

  That was the major problem with the Nexus, had to be an Adventurer and Level 100 to get access and then could bring along two others. Their Levels didn’t matter. That made me realize that I’d been somewhat wrong in my thinking. Jhang Gho was an Adventurer, I knew that for a fact, as Subudai hadn’t let anyone get to Level 100 that wasn’t one, but that didn’t mean that the Anura I’d come across were all Adventurers. Chances are that they weren’t.

  I’d have to remember that when dealing with beings in the Nexus. Just because they were there, and possibly over Level 100, didn’t mean they were Adventurers.

  “You were spying on our new Faction members?” I asked, shocked, making Ben just give me a deadpan look.

  I raised my hands.

  “Kidding,” I said, chuckling.

  Ben shook his head, sighing. It wasn’t often that I managed to trick him.

  It was standard procedure to spy on any prospective new Clans looking to join the Fellowship. Spying on them before and after their joining. We wanted to get an idea of what they were like behind closed doors before becoming part of the Fellowship and how they reacted immediately after joining.

  I hated it. I wanted to trust everyone but even I wasn’t that foolish.

  “So at best, within the next couple of weeks,” Ben said, making some more notes, crossing out numbers, adding more. “We’ll have six Adventurers with Nexus Access, which means twelve guests. Two of those spots are already taken with Tammy and Micheal. Four will be with their guards. That leaves five with Trevor taking one.”

  He tapped the pencil on the pad, thinking.

  “Four,” I said. “Sean from Northtown Brewing will probably get a permenant spot along with Tammy and Fields.”

  Ben raised an eyebrow.

  “Our beer is proving to be pretty popular,” I answered with a shrug.

  “Not good operational security,” he muttered, holding up a hand to forestall any argument from me or Kat. “I get it though. There’s multiple things going on. We want the Adventurers gaining Resources from the Infinite Tower and we want to start building a mercantile presence there with goods that are unique to Earth before any other Faction can get that foothold. And at the same time, we need to provide security for our people and get more information on the entire Nexus as a whole, not just the Factions from Earth.”

  “Terra,” I said, getting looks from the other three. “Apparently Earth is the name of every planet that has sentient life in the Multiverse. The automatic translator just translates it to the word in our language.”

  “So they hear it as Terra?” Ben asked. I nodded. “How can you say both Earth and Terra and it sounds different?”

  “I have no idea. It’s strange but everyone seems to accept it.”

  He just shook his head, making some new notes.

  “I’m assuming the guards will rotate on and off the Nexus, so we can rotate my people on and off, except Trevor. You’ll need to find a permanent position for him.”

  “What Level are you now?” Kat asked.

  “Ninety-five,” he replied.

  “Get grinding,” I said. “You can be our seventh Adventurer.” Ben raised his head, looking at me. Trevor was an Adventurer, but he’d never been like the rest of us. He Leveled but mostly he did his spy gig. “As much as I’d like to have Trevor in the Nexus, I think we need to wait for him to hit Level 100 and come in as an Adventurer.”

  “Tower access?” Ben asked.

  I nodded.

  Trevor just sighed. He really hated grinding. But he was good at it. Like me, his Path was really designed to be more efficient solo.

  “We’re going to have a couple of teams made up of different Factions,” I said, smiling at Trevor, seeing the way he squirmed slightly, not liking where I was going. “Trevor is perfect.”

  “I like being a spy,” he said.

  “You’ll still be a spy,” I replied and he nodded, understanding.

  Still didn’t look happy about it.

  Ben made a couple more notes.

  “I’ll reach out to our agents in Pangaea,” he said. “Have them look into Subudai’s movements a bit more. See if we can get better numbers on who he has going to the Nexus. Have you talked to Fred yet?”

  “Not yet. I’m heading over to his ranch tomorrow morning before I head back to Crossroads.”

  Ben nodded. He and Trevor got up, heading for the door.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  “No problem,” Ben said. “I’ll have a list of people that we’ll send over in the first wave ready for Kat to look at tomorrow.”

  “Thanks,” she said.

  Trevor just waved as they walked out, shutting the door behind them.

  I sighed.

  “I need a beer.”

  And I took one out of my inventory.